1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus to control static electricity in an ink-jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an ink-jet printer is provided with a carriage that is reciprocally disposed in a main frame and has an ink-cartridge. The carriage reciprocates by a moving unit, which is supported on a timing belt, and a guide shaft. The ink-cartridge has a print head disposed at a lower portion thereof. The print head is disposed to have a head gap with respect to printing paper that is conveyed by a feeding roller. The print head jets ink onto the paper to print an image on the paper while moving. That is, the print head disposed above and apart from the printing paper by a predetermined distance jets the ink through an ink-jet nozzle, and the jetted ink is transferred to the printing paper to form an image. At this point, a controller of the printer properly controls the ink-jetting operation of the ink-jet nozzle in accordance with input image information.
Static electricity is generated when the paper conveyed from a paper-feeding portion comes into contact with the feeding roller or a guide portion. The static electricity causes improper feeding of the paper and the quality of the printing paper deteriorates.
Also, the static electricity occurs near the print head and may interfere with the driving of the print head. This causes abnormalities in the print head, and thus data is not printed properly.